Youth warned to expect significant custodial sentence over stabbing

A THUG who twice stabbed a youth in an attempted robbery in a Southampton car park has been warned he faces a significant custodial sentence.

Today the Daily Echo can name the assailant as 17-year-old Ashley Butt, after Judge Peter Henry took the rare step of lifting reporting restrictions on his identity in the public interest.

He also directed the probation service to consider whether Butt posed a danger to the community after hearing he had 26 previous convictions for 47 offences.

Prosecutor Siobhan Linsley said they included an assault on his mother, an attack on a police officer who suffered a broken nose, and robbing a delivery driver of a pizza order at knifepoint.

“You have an appalling record with indiscriminate violence,” the judge told Butt, further remanding him in custody until February 17.

Jurors had taken just two hours to convict him of wounding with intent, robbery, attempted robbery and possessing a bladed article.

The city crown court heard how Butt and another teenager had initially chatted amicably with two youths in the car park.

But the mood abruptly changed when he demanded money from one, who thought it was a joke until he was thrown to the floor where he was kicked.

Butt then told the teenager to hand him money and threatened to stab the youth. When he again refused to hand over cash, Butt ran at him and stabbed him twice with a pair of scissors by his left shoulder.

The second youth then handed over £10, pleading, “Leave me alone”, before Butt and the other teenager left. The victims went to a friend’s house, where they called the police.